Mountain View, California — If you wish to see Mayor Gavin Newsom’s San Francisco favorites that is the Mint Cafe in the Superior Court basement and the Castro Theatre, and where many cool people of San Francisco dine and drink, then check out Google’s latest mapping project. Search engine titan Google on Wednesday unveiled a personalized mapping service called Favorite Places, at an event in City Hall, San Francisco, with none other than the hip-city’s trend-setting mayor at the podium.
The My Favorite Places feature is part of Google’s extension of the customization of iGoogle and to infuse its popular mapping service with even more bells and whistles, which has more themes as well as the option to let famous celebrities configure your iGoogle home page according to their own templates.
There are around 200 luminaries and semi-luminaries enlisted by Google to contribute their recommendations about where to go and what to do in various cities around the world.
Favorite Places, is the Mountain View Internet company’s latest enhancement to its online maps, in this case creating a mini collection of online city guides. “This is a new idea — a novel way to promote small businesses and for small businesses to promote themselves,” Newsom said.
So, what are the favorite places visited by some of the City’s trend-setters? Well, Newsom frequents La Boulange de Polk for green tea, Chez Panisse Chef Alice Waters sports around the tiny restaurant Sebo for the best sushi in San Francisco and Decemberists bassist goes to the Make-Out Room as his favorite hang-out place for a drink.
My Favorite Places lets users to choose from famous celebrities and trend setters — such as Moby, the barman at the Ritz hotel in Paris, Tokyo blogger Danny Chu, and Al Gore — and see what sort of favorite restaurants, cafés, and other sites that they prefer. It also allows users to do the same, building a collaborative database of local businesses that they frequent.
“We have been really excited to help people to use these tools more efficiently,” said Marissa Mayer, the vice president of search products and user experience at Google. We have also realized that maps are not just about finding things, they are about community.”
To view and enjoy the Favorite Places maps, users can go to www.google.com/favoriteplaces and select from a list of experts and trend setters, as Google calls them, for a particular city. Clicking on one of the names brings up a map on which are plotted the VIP’s hangouts accompanied by brief introductions describing why the location is notable.
Michael Mina, a renowned Bay Area chef, called out KukJe Market in Daly City, saying simply: “Awesome Korean market.”
In addition to San Francisco, Favorite Places is available for 14 cities, including New York, London and Tokyo. Actress Kristin Scott Thomas showcases Paris’ sixth arrondissement (including a yoga studio where she keeps fit) while fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg highlights all the ritzy places she goes in New York (she apparently does not leave Manhattan often).
Carter Maslan, director of product management for Google Maps, called the new mapping feature “a teaser that will open up the realm of business in that area.”
Nevertheless, Google’s Favorite Places maps is aimed at encouraging businesses to verify that their address, phone number and description are accurate in Google’s local search results. Business owners can also add information such as hours of operation and languages spoken.
A Google spokeswoman said there is no prohibition against participants touting their own business ventures.